Arrow rest for archery bow

ABSTRACT

A retractable arrow rest for an archery bow to support an arrow in proper position for shooting. The arrow rest includes an Lshaped member having an upright arm rotatably mounted in a sleeve that is connected to a bow mounting member. The arrow rest also includes an arrow supporting leg inclined outwardly from the bottom of the upright arm. The arrow supporting arm is spring biased outwardly from a bow to an angle extending generally along and across the direction of arrow flight and retracts out of the way upon forward movement of an arrow. The mounting member supports the upright arm and the arrow support leg and has adhesive for attaching it to a bow. The upright arm is housed in a friction-reducing sleeve. A spring for biasing the upright arm is positioned above the sleeve and has a cover there-over. The upper end of the upright arm has a member attached thereto for limiting the rotation of the upright arm. A friction-reducing cushion is positioned on the mounting member for engaging an arrow. The arrow supporting leg has a friction reducing sleeve positioned thereon.

United States Patent 1 Simo 1 3,769,956 [4 1 Nov. 6, 1973 ARROW REST FORARCHERY BOW [76] Inventor: Miroslav Andrew Simo, 107 Berrywood DrMarietta, Ga, 30060 [22] Filed: Jan. 13, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 217,464

[52] US. Cl. 124/41, 124/24 R, 124/30 R 3,406,676 10/1968 Dye 124/24XPrimary Examiner-Richard C. Pinkham Assistant Examiner-William R. BrowneAttorney-Harold D. Jones, Jr. et al.

57 ABSTRACT A retractable arrow rest for an archery bow to support anarrow in proper position for shooting. The arrow rest includes anL-shaped member having an upright arm rotatably mounted in a sleeve thatis connected to a bow mounting member. The arrow rest also includes anarrow supporting leg inclined outwardly from the bottom of the uprightarm. The arrow supporting arm is spring biased outwardly from a bow toan angle extending generally along and across the direction of arrowflight and retracts out of the way upon forward movement of an arrow.The mounting member supports the upright arm and the arrow support legand has adhesive for attaching it to a bow. The upright arm is housed ina friction-reducing sleeve. A spring for biasing the upright arm ispositioned above the sleeve and has a cover there-over. The upper end ofthe upright arm has a member attached thereto for limiting the rotationof the upright arm. A friction-reducing cushion is positioned on themounting member for engaging an arrow. The arrow supporting leg has afriction reducing sleeve positioned thereon.

7 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures 1 ARROW REST FOR ARCHERY BOW BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION With the advent of the bow having a horizontal shelf forsupport of the arrow, it has been observed that the rigid horizontalshelf has an adverse effect on shooting accuracy in that the fletchingon the arrow engages the rigid shelf and causes the arrow to bedeflected in its attitude and deviate from its intended path. Due tothis, there have been numerous attempts to attain the advantages of thesupport without the attendant disadvantages.

Many arrow rests have been devised that are to be used in conjunctionwith the horizontal shelf and have included pieces of fur, brushes orthe like placed on top of the horizontal shelf that can be deformed bythe fletching on the arrow to reduce the amount of deflection of thearrow. Other rests have had movable or stationary arms that are attachedto the bow.

One of the difficulties with the above mentioned fur or brush arrowrests is that the fur or brush wears quickly so that an arrow rest mayhave a useful life as short as a few days, depending on the amount ofuse. In addition, there is not sufficient arrow rest deformation tocompletely eliminate the deflection of the arrow; and, if the fur orbrush is made deeper, or with longerbristles to provide for more arrowrest deformation'by the arrow fletching, the arrow is likely to besupported at a point too high on the bow when the arrow rest is notworn; and, as the arrow rest wears due to use, the level of support ofthe arrow becomes lower.

-The mechanical devices that have been developed to provide an arrowrest usually are located above the bow shelf and raise the point alongthe bow at which the arrow rests, and generally have a relatively largeamount of hardward that interferes with the proper placement of thearrow against the bow and interferes with the'arrow fletching as thearrow is shot from the bow.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the drawn arrow normallyrests on the bow at a predetermined point above the center of the bow,and bow manufacturers tiller their bow limbs in an attempt to providebalanced-forces on'the arrow through the bow string. If thev arrow restsat a location significantly above or below the designed rest point, theforces applied to the arrow by the bow string will not be balanced, andthe unbalanced forces on the arrow cause deflection of the arrow as itleaves the bow and the arrow flight is not true.

Since bows with horizontal shelves tend to crack in the vicinity of theshelves, bows with curved shelves have become popular. This type bowconstruction prevents the use of many of the prior art arrow rests, andrequires that an arrow rest be attached to a vertical surface of the bowrather than being supported on a horizontal shelf. The arrow rest ismuch more difficult to properly attach to the bow since the bow shelf isnot present for aligning the arrow rest and some other means for properalignment must be determined.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The arrow rest of the present inventionovercomes the above-mentioned and other difficulties with the prior artarrow rests by providing a resilient support arm that is rotatable aboutan axis parallel to the bow string when the bow isin normal strungposition. The

support arm is spring biased towards the arrowreceiving position and isprovided with stop means to limit rotation in its biased direction whileallowing sufficient rotation in the opposite direction for the supportarm to lie along the bow and out of the way of the arrow and arrowfletching as the arrow is shot from the bow. The support arm is inclinedslightly up from the horizontal to assure that the arrow will restadjacent the bow, and the support arm is resilient so that, on releaseof the arrow, any downward force of the arrow against the support armwill be sufficient to overcome the resilience of the support arm and thesupport arm will not interfere with the normal flight of the arrow.Lateral cushioning means are also provided in conjunction with the arrowrest of the present invention. The lateral cushioning means serves thedual functions of giving horizontal cushioning to the arrow on releaseof the arrow and assuring that the arrow does not engage the mechanismof the arrow rest when the bow string is drawn and as the arrow movesacross the bow.

These and other-features and advantages of the present invention willbecome apparent from consideration of the following specification whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.

5 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIG. 1 is an exploded perspectiveview of an arrow restconstructed in accordance with the presentinvention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the assembled arrow rest shown inFIG. 1 with the support arm in its arrow receiving position;

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the arrow rest taken substantiallyalong the line 33 of FIG. 2;

FIG/4 is'a front elevational view of a modified form of the arrow restshown in conjunction with a fragmentary representation of a bow;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of a conventional bow with an arrowrest of the present invention mounted thereon; and,

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the arrow rest taken substantiallyalong the line 6-6 in FIG. 2.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring now more particularly tothe drawings, and tothose embodiments of the invention here chosen byway of illustration, it will be seen that the device shown in FIGS. 1-3comprises arrow rest assembly 9 including substantially rectangularconnecting plate 10 with rounded corners 11. Plate 10 is preferablyformed of a very thin metal that is sufficiently malleable to allow theplate 10 to conform to the surface of the bow on which the plate is tobe mounted, regardless of the single or multiple curvatures of thesurface of the bow on which the plate 10 is to be mounted. Onesuccessful embodiment of the invention is formed with the plate 10 madeof stainless steel of approximately 0.003 inch in thickness; Thismaterial provides sufficient durability and wear resistance whileallowing the necessary malleability of. the plates to conform tovirtually any bow surface.

The rear surface 12 of plate 10 is connected to the bow by a pressuresensitive adhesive 14. The adhesive 14 is covered with a paper 15 or thelike which is to be removed just before mounting plate 10 on a bow.Though the pressure sensitive adhesive 14 can take many forms, therebeing numerous such materials readily available, it has been found thatthe use of a woven fabric having a pressure sensitive adhesive on eachside thereof is particularly desirable in that the fabric can be pressedto plate for ease in manufacture of the arrow rest, and the wovenfabric, having some noticeable thickness, provides some cushioning, orgive, to the plate 10 with respect to the bow when the arrow rest isattached to the bow.

Carried by the plate 10 on its front surface 16 is a cylindricaljournaling sleeve 18. Sleeve 18 is mounted with its centerlinesubstantially parallel to the rear edge 19 of the plate 10 and issoldered or otherwise fixed to the plate 10. The lower end 20 of sleeve18 coincides with the lower edge 21 of the plate 10.

Journaling sleeve 18 receives arrow support means 22. It will be seenthat arrow support means 22 comprises an approximately L-shaped rod 23with a vertically disposed rectilinear support arm 24 having its upperend provided with a stop means such as elbow 25. As here shown, the stopmeans 25 is bent from the upper end of support arm 24 though it will beunderstood that other constructions could be used with equal success.The support means 22 also includes a rectilinear arrow support arm 26which is again provided simply by bending the material of the rod 23.Though this too could be provided by other constructions, it will beseen that the support means 22 is readily provided by a single piece ofwire with two bends, making construction and assembly very simple andinexpensive.

A primary feature of the arrow rest of the present invention is thesmoothness of operation of all mechanical parts. To provide thissmoothness of operation, the support arm 24 must rotate smoothly withinthe friction-reducing sleeve 18 without binding or chatter. The tube 18is fabricated from stainless steel and has an inside diameter of 0.036inch while rod 23 is formed of stainless steel wire having an outsidediameter of 0.035. It will also be seen that the sleeve 18 iscircumferentially enclosed to assure further that the operation issmooth. It will be seen from this that a very smooth operation will beprovided, and, due to the use of stainless steel, there will be nocorrosion to hamper this operation and use.

FIG. 3 of the drawings shows substantially the true angular relationshipbetween the stop means 25 and arrow support arm 26. From this it will beseen that, when stop means 25 is against the plate 10 to prevent furthermotion in a counterclockwise direction, arrow support arm 26 extends outat an angle of approximately 45; thus, stop means 25 and the support arm26 are about l35 apart. This angle can be varied with particulardesigns. With the arrangement shown, the arrow rest lies flat againstthe bow to lessen the likelihood of the apparatus's interfering with theflight of the arrow.

Arrow support arm 26 may be provided with a sleeve 28 as afriction-reducing cover to reduce the frictional drag of the arrowacross the support arm. The sleeve can be made of various plastics suchas a fluorinated hydrocarbon plastic material or the arrow support arm26 can be dip coated in a similar substance.

Coil torsion spring 30 surrounds the upper end of the support shaft 24adjacent the stop means 25 and functions as a biasing means and urgesarrow support arm 26 away from the bow. The spring 30 has its lower endterminating in a straight finger 31 which bears against the plate 10while the upper end 32 of the spring 30 is arranged to be attached tothe support arm 24 as indicated at 34. The attachment can convenientlybe made by spot welding, or by soldering the last few turns of thespring to the rod 23.

With the above described construction it will be understood that thefinger 31 of the spring 30 will bear against the plate 10 while the end32 of the spring 30 will cause the support 22 to rotate counterclockwise(as viewed in FIG. 3) until stop means 25 rests against plate 10.Support arm 22 can then be rotated clockwise (as viewed in FIG. 3)against the force of the spring 30. It will also be seen in FIG. 2 ofthe drawings that the lower end of the spring 30 rests against the upperend of the journaling sleeve 18. With this arrangement it will be seenthat there will be no longitudinal play in the shaft 24.

Though a coiled torsion spring is illustrated as a means to provide aforce on the support 22 it will be readily understood that substantiallyany elastic means will provide the necessary biasing force. For example,a leaf spring would be admirably suited to such use since the motion ofthe stop means 25 is well within the limits of an ordinary leaf spring.Further, some resilient means can be placed between the stop means 25and the plate 10 to provide the bias. It will thus be seen thatvirtually any elastic means can provide the needed force.

Cover 35 is attached to plate 10 and shields spring 30 and stop means 25and prevents there elements from contacting the arrow. The cover 35includes a mounting flange 36 with a central bulbous deformity 38 closedat its upper end and open at its lower end. This housing 35 encloses theupper end of the support 22, overlapping slightly with the sleeve 18,and the bulbous deformity 38 presents a smooth surface to the arrow. Asbest seen in FIG. 6 of the drawings, the housing 35 tapers in so thatthe lowermost edge of the housing 35 is substantially in contact withthe journaling sleeve. Again, this arrangement simply further reducesthe likelihood that the fletching, or other portions of the arrow, willsnag on any portion of the mechanical apparatus.

Since the housing 35.is wider than the diameter of the journaling sleeve18, it will be seen that there will be some space on atleast one side ofthe journaling sleeve 18. This space will allow access to the spring foroccasional lubrication if necessary.

In the embodiments of the invention shown in FIGS. 1-3, a cushion 40 iscarried by the plate 10 and disposed forwardly of the sleeve 18. Cushion40 can conveniently be made ofleather or the like and coated with amaterial to reduce the frictional drag of the arrow, such as afluorinated hydrocarbon. The cushion 40 forms a vertical rest for thearrow and provides horizontal cushioning between the arrow and the bowat the moment of release of the bowstring.

There is a device currently in use by some archers to provide ahorizontal shock cushion. The device is known as a cushion plunger andis generally a spring biased plunger that is mounted through the bow andis, for the most part, simply a more sophisticated version of thecushion 40. For use in conjunction with the standard cushion plunger,there is shown in FIG. 4 a modified form of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 4, it will be seen that the bow 50 (shown onlyfragmentarily) is provided with a conventional cushion plunger 51.Adjacent to the cushion plunger 51 is a plate 10A that is similar to theplate 10 previously described except that the lower front corner of theplate A is omitted so there will be no interference of the plate 10Awith the cushion plunger 51. Other parts of the'arrow rest shown in FIG.4 are the same as previously described and given the same referencenumerals with an A suffix. It will thus be seen that the arrow rest ofthe present invention is readily adaptable to be used with its owncushion 40 or with the cushion plunger 51 of the bow.

To install the arrow rest on a bow, the paper would be peeled off toexpose the adhesive 14, and the plate 10 could then be placed intoposition on the bow. As shown in FIG. 5, the rear edge 19 of the plate10 should be mounted to be parallel to the string 55 of the how 56 whenthe bow is in normal strung condition. The string S5 thus provides analigning guide. With the arrow rest thus mounted, the arrow support arm26 will be inclined slightly up from the horizontal so that an arrowwill tend to slide towards the plate 10 rather than off the arm 26.Though this up angle is not critical, it has been found that an angle ofapproximately 2 is sufficient to hold an arrow 'on the arm. The arrowwill of course rest against the cushion 40 in the'embodiment of FIGS.1-3, or against the cushion plunger 51 in the embodiment of FIG. 4.

Since the plate 10 is very thin, the arrow will rest very close to thebow. This is important in some bow struc-v tures because the bows aredesigned for the arrow to pass through the'centerline of the bow, andany deviation from the intended position of the arrow will distort thisfeature causing inaccuracies in the flight of the arrow. l

The spring 30 will hold the arrow support means 22 in position so thatarrow support arm 26 is extended away from the bow as shown in FIG. 3 toreceive an arrow while the arrow is placed on the arrow support arm 26and the bow is drawn. Due to the presence of the friction-reducingmaterial 28 on arrow support arm 26, if'the arrow is allowed to slideslightly forward, arrow support arm 26 will not rotate but will remainin its full outward position under the influence of its spring 30 tocontinue to provide maximum holding ability for-the arrow. When the bowstring 55 is released to set the arrow in flight, the forward movementof the shaft of the arrow sliding along arrow support arm 26 causes thearrow support arm to pivottowards the bow so the arrow support arm .willnot be engaged by the fletching. If the engagement of the arrow shaftagainst the arrow support arm 26 is not sufficient to pivot arrowsupport arm 26, the engagement of the fletching against arrow supportarm will pivot the support arm.

It has been found that when an arrow is released from a bow, only aportion of the arrow will actually remain engaged with an arrow rest.The arrow tends to move upwardly and to be in free flight, not touchingthe arrow rest. Further, immediately on release of the string, there isusually a down force on the arrow, this force being perhaps in thevicinity of about 5 ounces at the instant of release. It has been foundin rigid arrow rests such as the rigid horizontal arrow support shelf,that the arrow will tend to bounce upwardly off the shelf, causingdeviation of the arrow from its intended path. In the device of thepresent invention, the use of the very thin wire having a bendablequality, the arrow support arm 26 will flex to absorb the down force ofthe arrow and prevent arrow bouncing. The approximate force required todeflect the arrow support arm 26 from its two degrees up angle to thehorizontal is approximately three ounces.

In the design of the arrow rest of the present invention, the spring 30is arranged so that it will just overcome the rotational friction of thesupport arm 24 within the journaling sleeve 18. This, combined with thevery low inertia of the support 22, will allow the support means 22 torotate when engaged by even the most delicate of fletching used'onarrows so that arrow support arm 26 will be moved completely out ofposition and when engaged by the fletching.

Despite the ease of moving the support arm 26 out of the arrows path,arrow support arm 26 will return to the supporting position almostimmediately after the arrow has passed since the only force preventingthe return is the friction of the arm 24 within the sleeve 18, and thespring 30 is sufficient to overcome this force.

It will now be seen that the arrow rest of the present inventionprovides an extremely simple and relatively inexpensive device that willadequately support an arrow while the arrow is static and will be movedcompletely out of the path of the arrow when the arrow is dischargedfrom the bow. Once the arrow rest is in its folded position, there areno supports or other obstructions within the path of the arrow thatcould deflect the arrow from its intended path.

It will of course be understood that the embodiments of the inventionhere presented are by way of illustration only and are meant to be in noway restrictive; therefore, numerous changes and modifications may bemade and the full use of equivalents resorted to without departing fromthe scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An arrow rest including mounting means for attaching the arrow restto a bow, a circumferentially enclosed journaling sleeve fixed to saidmounting means, an arrow support member including a shaft received insaid journaling sleeve and rotably carried by said mounting means, anarrow support arm for supporting an arrow thereon attached to andextending outwardly from said shaft at the lower terminal end of saidjournaling sleeve, stop means extending from said shaft and disposedabove said journaling sleeve for limiting rotation of said support armin one direction, biasing means for urging said support arm in onedirection and comprising a coil spring having a lower end and an upperend, said lower end of said coil spring being contiguous with andresting on the upper end of said journaling sleeve and said upper end ofsaid coil spring being fixed to said shaft, and a cover enclosing saidstop means and said biasing means, said mounting means being conformableto the surface of a bow onto which it is to be mounted.

2. An arrow rest as claimed in claim 1 and said journaling sleeve is afriction-reducing sleeve.

3. An arrow rest as claimed in claim 2 and further including a cushionfixed to said mounting means forwardly of said journaling sleeve andabove said arrow support arm such that an arrow placed on the arrowsupport arm will bear against said cushion, said cushion having afriction-reducing surface.

4. An arrow rest according to claim 2 and further including adhesivemeans on the rear surface of said mounting means for securing themounting means to a bow.

5. An arrow rest for a bow comprising mounting means for attaching thearrow rest to a bow, an arrow supporting member comprising a singlepiece of wire including a first rectilinear arm connected to saidmounting means and normally oriented approximately parallel to abowstring of a bow in its undrawn condition, said first rectilinear armfor rotation about its longitudinal axis, and a second rectilinear armextending at an angle approximately perpendicular to said firstrectilinear arm at the lower most terminal end of said first rectilineararm when the second rectilinear arm is in a position to receive anarrow, spring means engaging said arrow supporting member and saidmounting means biasing said second rectilinear arm outwardly from a bowand said mounting means, and stop means for limiting the outwardrotation of said second rectilinear arm from a bow, said mounting meansincluding cover means enclosing a substantial portion of said firstrectilinear arm and said spring means.

6. The arrow rest of claim 5 and wherein said mounting means isconformable to a portion of a bow onto which said mounting means is tobe mounted.

7. The arrow rest of claim 5 and further including a friction-reducingsleeve inserted over said second rectilinear arm.

1. An arrow rest including mounting means for attaching the arrow restto a bow, a circumferentially enclosed journaling sleeve fixed to saidmounting means, an arrow support member including a shaft received insaid journaling sleeve and rotably carried by said mounting means, anarrow support arm for supporting an arrow thereon attached to andextending outwardly from said shaft at the lower terminal end of saidjournaling sleeve, stop means extending from said shaft and disposedabove said journaling sleeve for limiting rotation of said support armin one direction, biasing means for urging said support arm in onedirection and comprising a coil spring having a lower end and an upperend, said lower end of said coil spring being contiguous with andresting on the upper end of said journaling sleeve and said upper end ofsaid coil spring being fixed to said shaft, and a cover enclosing saidstop means and said biasing means, said mounting means being conformableto the surface of a bow onto which it is to be mounted.
 2. An arrow restas claimed in claim 1 and said journaling sleeve is a friction-reducingsleeve.
 3. An arrow rest as claimed in claim 2 and further including acushion fixed to said mounting means forwardly of said journaling sleeveand above said arrow support arm such that an arrow placed on the arrowsupport arm will bear against said cushion, said cushion having afriction-reducing surface.
 4. An arrow rest according to claim 2 andfurther including adhesive means on the rear surface of said mountingmeans for securing the mounting means to a bow.
 5. An arrow rest for abow comprising mounting means for attaching the arrow rest to a bow, anarrow supporting member comprising a single piece of wire including afirst rectilinear arm connected to said mounting means and normallyoriented approximately parallel to a bowstring of a bow in its undrawncondition, said first rectilinear arm for rotation about itslongitudinal axis, and a second rectilinear arm extending at an angleapproximately perpendicular to said first rectilinear arm at the lowermost terminal end of said first rectilinear arm when the secondrectilinear arm is in a position to receive an arrow, spring meansengaging said arrow supporting member and said mounting means biasingsaid second rectilinear arm outwardly from a bow and said mountingmeans, and stop means for limiting the outward rotation of said secondrectilinear arm from a bow, said mounting means including cover meansenclosing a substantial portion of said first rectilinear arm and saidspring means.
 6. The arrow rest of claim 5 and wherein said mountingmeans is conformable to a portion of a bow onto which said mountingmeans is to be mounted.
 7. The arrow rest of claim 5 and furtherincluding a friction-reducing sleeve inserted over said secondrectilinear arm.